in substituting bruised maize and chaff for the old-fashioned forage of oats and trusses of hay. Coachmen and corndealers resolutely oppose the innovation for the reason that it enables the owners of horses to exercise a control over supplies for their stables and prevent waste and fraud. Nothing can be more simple than to allow so many pounds weight of a compound forage for each horse per day and to see that he gets it; whereas it is almost impossible to check the consumption or ascertain the quality of oats and trusses of hay which are frequently delivered deficient in weight, to the injury of both the horses and their owner, but to the advantage of the servant and the tradesman.-Pall Mall Gazette.

PARTRIDGES AND PIGEONS AT ST. PAUL'S CHURCH.-Mr. Longman, in his work on the "History of St. Paul's Cathedral,' records the following from Stowe:-"In 1597, one Anthony Finch, of Lewes, in Sussex, taught a covey of partridges to follow him to London, through Southwark, over London Bridge, through New Fish Street, Crooked Lane, Candlewick Lane, and, they being eight in number, followed him to the top of Paul's steeple, and there he gave them to the Bishop of London," who, it is to be hoped, allowed them the run of Fulham, or at least of his garden in Aldersgate Street, for the rest of their lives, unless, with reference to their last mounting, he permitted them to join one of the flights of pigeons which made their restingplace on the roof of the Cathedral, and swarmed down into the streets, like the pigeons of to-day in the great square at Venice. Of the St. Paul's pigeons, under the date of 1550 we read,--"This year was many frays in Powlles Church and nothynge sayd on to them; and one man felle downe in Powlls Church and brake hys necke for kecheynge of pegyns in the nyght the iij day of December."-Sussex Daily News.

THE KNIGHT'S TOUR.-The exhaustive article by "J. B. D.," last September part, has pleasantly recalled to my rememce my early practice, founded on Dr. Roget's paper, when more leisure hours to spare on such matters than I can command. Although, however, Dr. Roget's method is clearly described by your correspondent, I hope he will se my asking him what Algebra has to do with it? But bbject now is to describe a practical method I used to in working out the "Tour." With a small chess-board, ng a brass nail projecting from the centre of each square, ced the moves with a cord of the necessary length, which eing passed round each peg, marking a move, thus exed to the eye symmetrical figures indicating the particular

followed.-H. A. 8.

BRADFORD CHIMES.-The splendid new town-hall of Bradford, which was opened with much ceremony last autumn, has in its great tower a Carillon or chiming machine, with thirteen bells, said to be the largest peal ever cast in Europe. The bells range from 2ft. 6 in. to 6ft. 54in. in diameter, and in weight from 7ewt. 3qrs. 2lbs. to 87cwt. The Carillon is at present fitted with three machine barrels, each with seven tunes pricked on it. A tune is played every three hours, day and night; and by self-acting machinery a fresh tune begins at midnight of each day of the week. At the end of the week a fresh barrel is put in. The bells can also be played by the fingers, an ivory keyboard being attached. The Carillon as well as the great clock are from the factory of Messrs. Gillett and Bland, Croydon; the bells were cast at the works of Mr. Taylor, of Loughborough.

SERVICE IN LONDON.-The condition of their servants is almost the last thing that occupies many of the good ladies under whose roof they live and work. Some of the most charitable people in the world, the most patient in sitting under preachers, and the most generous in contributions towards the salvation of the heathen, never dream of seeing after the social or religious welfare of the cook or the parlour-maid. When we think for a moment on this culpable neglect, and on the pitfalls in the path of good-looking servants, it is only a wonder that more of them do not come to grief. In large establishments, where footmen and butlers are kept, the evils are of course aggravated. There is very little circumspection in such places, although some is supposed to be exercised by the housekeeper; but it was only the other day we read of the servants' orgie in a fashionable street, where it appeared the whole batch of domestics were drunk promiscuously. At certain times of the year families leave town, and many of the servants remain by themselves in the mansion. The irregularities that occur at such seasons may be more easily imagined described. Out of doors the case of the nursery-maid the hardest of any. She is turned with her charges

Park or Kensington Gardens. A permanent stock of soldiers are kept in the neighbourhood by a liberal country, with nothing to do but to philander about the district and seek intrigues. The girls are almost driven to associate with these fellows, who hang round them like blue-bottles round sugarcasks. Driving a perambulator is dull work, and a pretty woman who sees her young mistress flirting gaily in the Row is easily enough impelled to encourage the advances of the dashing private, or corporal, who is a skilled adept in such affairs. There is nothing indeed those bold warriors will not do in laying siege to the nursery-maid. They will wheel the perambulator, or hoist up the contents of it above their lofty heads until the squeal of mere pettishness is exchanged for a crow of pleasure. They recite songs from comic books, they offer themselves as escorts to music-halls, and as standing cavaliers on the Sunday out. The end is an old story. Sometimes a coroner has to deal with it, sometimes a judge and a jury take it up after the coroner. It may, indeed, conclude differently. The girl may get married to her admirer, and become the halfstarved laundress to the regiment, put into quarters where the conditions of living are not even decent.--Times.

LADIES' DRESS DESCRIBED BY A LADY. - Miss Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, authoress of "Gates Ajar," wrote in the "New York Independent:" "For myself I confess that I never feel thoroughly ashamed of being a woman, except in glancing over a large promiscuous assembly, and contrasting the simplicity, solidity, elegance, and good sense of a man's apparel with the affectation, the flimsiness, the tawdriness, the ugliness, and the imbecility of a woman's. For her mental and moral deficiencies my heart is filled with a great compassion and prompt excuse. Over her physical inferiority I mourn not as one without hope. When I consider the pass to which she has brought the one sole science of which she is supposed to be yet mistress, my heart misgives me down to the roots of every hope I cherish for her."

PRAYER.-If there be any duty which our Lord Jesus Christ seems to have considered as more indispensably necessary towards the formation of a true Christian it is that of prayer. He has taken every opportunity of impressing on our minds the absolute need in which we stand of the divine assistance, both to persist in the paths of righteousness, and to fly from the allurements of a fascinating but dangerous life; and he has directed us to the only means of obtaining that assistance, in constant and habitual appeals to the throne of grace. Prayer is certainly the foundation of a religious life; for a man can neither arrive at true piety, nor persevere in its ways when attained, unless with sincere and continued fervency, and with the most unaffected anxiety, he implores Almighty God to grant him his perpetual grace, to guard and restrain him from all those derelictions of heart to which by nature we are too prone. I should think it an insult to the understanding of a Christian to dwell on the necessity of prayer.-Henry Kirke White.

AIR-BELLS IN FRANCE.--The French have a system of bells lately patented, which work by air. A series of small leaden tubes proceed from the kitchen to each room, one to the sitting-room, one to the drawing-room, and one to each bedroom. Attached to these tubes in each room are a few feet of indiarubber tubing, suited in colour to the paper of the room. To the end of the tube a syringe is fixed air-tight, and this hangs similar to an ordinary bell-rope. In the kitchen is a case containing the bell which serves for all the rooms, the distinction being effected by tickets with the names of their respective rooms printed on them, held down by springs. They work in this manner: The indiarubber syringe is pressed, and the air by this means is forced through the tube into a corre sponding indiarubber syringe or ball in the case in the kitchen. This of course expands, and forces up a small rod which moves a cogwheel and rings the bell, and at the same time sets free the spring which retains the ticket of the room in which the bell is rung; this starts up into a square place in the glass door and at once indicates in a simple manner the room. These ingenious bells act as effectively as electric bells, which they resemble exceedingly in sound, without their trouble and expense, and not getting out of order like our wire bells and cranks.

DENSITY OF POPULATION. -In England the population is equal to one person to every 7,340 square yards; in Wales, one person to 18,777 square yards; in England and Wales together one to 7,953 square yards'; in Scotland, one to 28,084 square

one to 18,621 square yards. In the United hole, the population is one person to every s, or about 260 persons to the square mile.

My father's only relations were distant ones, who could be of no assistance to us. My mother had friends in Canada, but they had lost sight of each other. She had a cousin twice removed, however, in Edinburgh, who had been formerly in trade, but who had now retired from business. He was a strict religious professor, and had been used to pay us a visit at the time of the summer communion. We young folks stood much in awe of him, for he was a severe and narrow-minded man, dogmatic and overbearing. Our intercourse had come to an abrupt close about two years prior to this period. It was occasioned by his having caught me with a copy of the " Gentle Shepherd," which I was devouring, unobserved, as I thought, in a cunning corner behind the parlour sofa on a rainy day. The light on my page becoming suddenly obscured, I looked up, and beheld Cousin Braidfute's grim countenance glowering down on me over the back of the sofa. Great was my dismay, and awful was the reproof administered to me for thus mis-spending my time. And leaving me weeping, half from disappointment and half from fear of his warnings, he carried the offending book to my mother, on whom he bestowed a similar reprimand for indulging her family in such pastimes.

But the result was not satisfactory to Mr. Braidfute. My gentle mother was troubled in conscience by this reproof, and could not conceal it from my father, whom it seriously displeased on her account, and because he had given me permission to read the book. And with all civility he gave Mr. Braidfute clearly to understand that he would not permit such interference with his family; which, however, gave that individual such offence that he speedily returned to Edinburgh, from whence he penned a letter to my mother containing such severe animadversions on her and my father's conduct, and such denunciations anent the sin of reading light and unprofitable books, that he was never again invited to the manse. I think my mother secretly regretted it: she could bear much from Cousin Braidfute (as she always called him) for his mother's sake, who had shown her kindness in her youth.

This family disagreement rendered it impossible for my mother to ask our relative's advice on our affairs, which she would gladly have done; for "Cousin Braidfute," she said, "had ever a keen eye for business, and though so strict a professor, was a shrewd and practical man." We had sent him intimations of the deaths in the family, but he had taken no notice of them as yet, and my mother hardly expected he would.

"We must just struggle on by ourselves, Matthew, my dear," she said to me, as she smiled encouragingly through her tears; "you and Archie have always been good bairns to me, and there is no fear but we shall get on somehow, for God is very tender to the widow and the orphan.'

So at length we decided to move into Edinburgh,

dead; but still friendly enough considering the nature of the man. My mother answered it immediately, detailing our plans, and requesting his opinion upon them. Cousin Braidfute liked nothing better than to give advice: so we soon received a reply, generally approving of our arrangements, and containing an offer to look out a suitable house for us, if one was to be found at this season. This relieved my mother of her greatest anxiety. And we soon heard that he had engaged a first flat for us in a respectable locality at a moderate rent. He would not become security for us, however, but we had no difficulty with Mr. Tait, of Cruikstone parish. We had a busy time preparing for moving. I was of some use to my mother, but Archie packed all my father's books and manuscripts, and was ever ready to lift heavy burdens, or to do anything that required strength and activity. At other times he was best out of the way, for he was very apt to throw down and break things, especially crockery. The day came at last when we behoved to leave the manse, and the people among whom we had lived for so many years. Adam Bowman's father sent his carts and men all the way to Edinburgh with our furniture free of cost.

"We'll ca' the wee room yours after this, Mr. Matthew," said Adam's mother, on bidding me farewell; "and the oftener you come to fill it, the blyther will we a' be. Eh! but Adam, puir fallow, will miss you."

What a moment of sorrow it was when we turned a last look upon our late pleasant home, and left my father and Mary behind lying in the quiet kirkyard!

POSTAGE STAMPS AND STAMP ALBUMS.

ABOUT ten years ago, in 1863, an article appeared in the "Leisure Hour," entitled "Postage Stamps," followed by another headed "Rare and Curious Stamps." The collecting of stamps had not then risen to the mania which it afterwards reached. The practice of stamp collecting is now indeed more widely followed than ever, but it attracts less attention, from the rivalry of other fashions and usages. The hold that it has on public favour is attested in a very clear and practical way, by the number and variety of carefully compiled stamp albums, one of which boasts of twelve, and another of seventeen editions. The number of stamps has vastly increased during these past ten years. This is partly owing to new countries adopting this method of prepaying letters, as Japan, Egypt, Cashmere, Sarawak, Hungary, Servia, and the Fiji Islands. There have been frequent causes of additions in the older countries, whether from political changes, as in America, during the Civil War, or from alteration of the devices used in the most peaceable countries. As an extreme case-where both political revolution and artistic or financial motives unite in causing

A priced list of English, foreign, and colonial stamps, with description of size, colour, dates, is published by William Lincoln, of High Holborn, under the title of The Lincoln Stamp Album and Catalogue." This useful manual gives notices of the larger albums of Oppen, Moen,

Lallier, and others.

disturbance-the whole series of stamps in Spain and her colonies are changed every year, the old ones being withdrawn or destroyed.

We have before us a pretty complete collection of stamps, and in glancing through its pages are reminded of many historical facts and events. But we will not do more than indicate the kind of changes which young collectors may usefully study. The mere acquisition of stamps, so as to feed pride, or make boast of a large collection, is a poor and pitiful thing. A long purse, without much either of industry or intelligence, can secure a large collection. But to have a judicious selection, and to be able to obtain amusement and instruction from the various devices in certain countries at different times, is a far worthier object. In Italy, for instance, the displacement of the Papal stamps by those of the Italian kingdom tells of the progress of national unity and freedom. The disappearance of the Confederate stamps from circulation in America is the memorial of the doom of slavery, and the advance of free labour and equal rights all over the world. Or, in later years, the handsome stamps, with large plain figures, for Alsace and Lorraine, tell of the result of the great war by which the restless French have been driven back, for ever let us hope, from the Rhine provinces, which they have kept for generations in commotion and disturbance. The recent rise and rapid progress of Japan, in imitation of western improvement, is notified by the presence of three series of stamps engraved by native artists, and printed on paper of native manufacture.

The recent changes in the Spanish government are marked by the various devices employed: the Republic of 1870, by a head of Liberty, with mural crown; the accession of King Amadeo, by a fine series of stamps bearing his portrait; his abdication, by the issue of a set with a seated figure, representing the Republic of Spain. Stamps have been recently issued by Don Carlos, with his portrait, which we hope will become only curiosities for the collector.

case.

Varieties.

THE SULTAN'S TREASURY.-The chief piece of the collection is the far-famed throne of Nadir Shah, which occupies the centre It forms a large oval of 5ft. by 3ft., standing on four massive legs, and looking rather like a short couch than a throne. It is made of wood, as you may see when inspecting the seat, which looks in colour like lemon wood, on which the cushions are to be placed. A rim about 6in. high runs round it, except in front, while at the back it rises up into a point. The inside of the rim is overlaid with gold-foil, while outside, on a ground composed of various colours-red, yellow, and green you see garlands of flowers and other ornamental tracery in pearls, rubies, and emeralds, which cover the whole throne, including a small stool standing in front of it. All the stones are rounded and uncut, but many of them are of the purest water, and the pearls are almost faultless. Nadir Shah's throne is a trophy of Sultan Achmed III, who, disappointed in the West, where the Victories of Eugène of Savoy had forced him to give up his last footing in Hungary, endeavoured, and successfully, to make up for his reverses by extending his dominions in the East. Nadir Shah brought back those jewels with which he ornamented his throne from his Indian expeditions, and had to give them up in turn to the successful Turkish Sultan.

KETT'S OAK.-A correspondent writes :-"Let me add a note to an interesting article on Gospel and Reformation Oaks in the

'Sunday at Home' for September. There appear to have been three trees with the name Kett's Oak: 1. The tree near Wymondham, now standing in the bounds of Hethersett, on what, less than a hundred years ago, was an open common; under this tree 'the rebels' first assembled in force. 2. A tree at Royston, near Downham, where another camp of Kett's followers appears to have been formed; and 3, the tree on Mousehold, near Norwich, the Oak of Reformation, under which Kett assumed regal authority. Of this the only memorial is a Photograph from an old engraving, given as the frontispiece in Kett's Rebellion in Norfolk by the Rev. F. W.Russell, 4to, London, 1859.' A description of it may be found on p. 61 of that learned work, but we may doubt whether Rapin, as quoted by Mr. Russell, p. 4, is correct in saying 'they called the old oak the Oak of Reformation because these talked only of reforming the State, religion being neither the cause nor pretence of their rising' for certainly the proceedings of the Commonalty were watched with great interest by the two great religious parties, as appears on the one hand by the Lady Mary's' name being mixed up with the movement, and on the other by the great interest taken in repressing it by Matthew Parker and others of his sentiments. W. R. C."

ARNOLD OF RUGBY.-Dr. Arnold's moral influence in his

school was equally great and exceptional. He was a severe disciplinarian, as a good schoolmaster necessarily is; but this was not the only reason of his wonderful power over his boys. The real secret was that he loved and that he trusted them, and that they wished always to continue to deserve his trust and love. This was a curious change from the old relations between master and pupil; but Dr. Arnold would rather have given up his school than have governed it by any other method. It was quite necessary for him to feel that he could take his boys at their word, and that there was some resemblance between their conduct and language when he was and when he was not with them. He made them his friends when he could, and the friendship was not lightly interrupted. It was felt by the boys to be worth preserving, even at the sacrifice of a boy's ordinary faults. There were some offences which Arnold could never tolerate. He hated with his whole soul all deceit, all cowardice, and all oppression of the weak. He made his boys feel that these things were unworthy of them, and he enforced his His aim was to develop and to encourage in his school the lesson with the full sanctions of authority and of religion. growth of a straightforward, manly, Christian character, and such a character was his own. He was, indeed, a rare combination of all that boys who are worth anything at all can the moral and the intellectual side of his consistent nature. In It is not possible to dissociate both we find the exercise of the rare qualities without which neither could have been what it was. There is the same ready sympathy; the same care without a thought of self, for the interests of others; the same large-minded allowance for imperfection; the same glad recognition of excellence wherever it can be found. It would not be easy to exaggerate, in either direction, the weight of Arnold's influence. There were, of course, black sheep at Rugby as elsewhere; the school and system have yet to be established that can hope to quite get rid of them. But the general tone at Rugby was such as had never existed before at any public or private school in England; and if it has become more common since, and if Rugby can no longer give us an example of it, we must remember that other schools have almost confessedly derived their tone from the example which Rugby first set them, and that Rugby itself is not likely for some time yet, to be governed by another Arnold. -Times.

admire and love and reverence.

HORSE FORAGE.-Some useful information for all who keep horses may be obtained by studying the evidence taken before the Select Committee on Horses. For instance, it appears from the evidence of Mr. Church, the general manager and secretary of the General Omnibus Company, that oats have been discarded These as forage for omnibus horses for the last six years. animals are fed entirely on maize and chaff, each horse receiving as its daily ration about 17lb. of the former and 101b. of the latter. The maize is just broken sufficiently to enable the horses to cat it without difficulty, and they thrive better on this fodder than they ever did upon oats. Indeed, every one who remembers the omnibus horse of former days, with his jaded, careworn appearance and his hollow ribs, must observe a vast improvement in the condition of the animals. On the ground of economy also maize is preferable to oats as forage for horses, its price being much lower, and the saving effected being about 3s. or 4s. a quarter. These facts have long been known to many owners of horses, but gentlemen with private stables find great difficulty

in substituting bruised maize and chaff for the old-fashioned forage of oats and trusses of hay. Coachmen and corndealers resolutely oppose the innovation for the reason that it enables the owners of horses to exercise a control over supplies for their stables and prevent waste and fraud. Nothing can be more simple than to allow so many pounds weight of a compound forage for each horse per day and to see that he gets it; whereas it is almost impossible to check the consumption or ascertain the quality of oats and trusses of hay which are frequently delivered deficient in weight, to the injury of both the horses and their owner, but to the advantage of the servant and the tradesman.-Pall Mall Gazette.

PARTRIDGES AND PIGEONS AT ST. PAUL'S CHURCH.-Mr. Longman, in his work on the "History of St. Paul's Cathedral," records the following from Stowe :-"In 1597, one Anthony Finch, of Lewes, in Sussex, taught a covey of partridges to follow him to London, through Southwark, over London Bridge, through New Fish Street, Crooked Lane, Candlewick Lane, and, they being eight in number, followed him to the top of Paul's steeple, and there he gave them to the Bishop of London," who, it is to be hoped, allowed them the run of Fulham, or at least of his garden in Aldersgate Street, for the rest of their lives, unless, with reference to their last mounting, he permitted them to join one of the flights of pigeons which made their restingplace on the roof of the Cathedral, and swarmed down into the streets, like the pigeons of to-day in the great square at Venice. Of the St. Paul's pigeons, under the date of 1550 we read,-"This year was many frays in Powlles Church and nothynge sayd on to them; and one man felle downe in Powlls Church and brake hys necke for kecheynge of pegyns in the nyght the iij day of December."-Sussex Daily News.

THE KNIGHT'S TOUR. -The exhaustive article by "J. B. D.," in last September part, has pleasantly recalled to my remembrance my early practice, founded on Dr. Roget's paper, when I had more leisure hours to spare on such matters than I can now command. Although, however, Dr. Roget's method is very clearly described by your correspondent, I hope he will excuse my asking him what Algebra has to do with it? But my object now is to describe a practical method I used to adopt in working out the "Tour." With a small chess-board, having a brass nail projecting from the centre of each square, I traced the moves with a cord of the necessary length, which on being passed round each peg, marking a move, thus exhibited to the eye symmetrical figures indicating the particular

route followed.-B. A. S.

BRADFORD CHIMES.-The splendid new town-hall of Bradford, which was opened with much ceremony last autumn, has in its great tower a Carillon or chiming machine, with thirteen bells, said to be the largest peal ever cast in Europe. The bells range from 2ft. 6 in. to 6ft. 54in. in diameter, and in weight from 7cwt. 3qrs. 2lbs. to 87ewt. The Carillon is at present fitted with three machine barrels, each with seven tunes pricked on it. A tune is played every three hours, day and night; and by self-acting machinery a fresh tune begins at midnight of each day of the week. At the end of the week a fresh barrel is put in. The bells can also be played by the fingers, an ivory keyboard being attached. The Carillon as well as the great clock are from the factory of Messrs. Gillett and Bland, Croydon; the bells were cast at the works of Mr. Taylor, of Loughborough.

SERVICE IN LONDON.-The condition of their servants is almost the last thing that occupies many of the good ladies under whose roof they live and work. Some of the most charitable people in the world, the most patient in sitting under preachers, and the most generous in contributions towards the salvation of the heathen, never dream of seeing after the social or religious welfare of the cook or the parlour-maid. When we think for a moment on this culpable neglect, and on the pitfalls in the path of good-looking servants, it is only a wonder that more of them do not come to grief. In large establishments, where footmen and butlers are kept, the evils are of course aggravated. There is very little circumspection in such places, although some is supposed to be exercised by the housekeeper; but it was only the other day we read of the servants' orgie in a fashionable street, where it appeared the whole batch of domestics were drunk promiscuously. At certain times of the year families leave town, and many of the servants remain by themselves in the mansion. The irregularities that occur at such seasons may be more easily imagined than described. Oat of doors the case of the nursery-maid is perhaps the hardest of any. She is turned with her charges into Hyde

Park or Kensington Gardens. A permanent stock of soldiers are kept in the neighbourhood by a liberal country, with nothing to do but to philander about the district and seek intrigues. The girls are almost driven to associate with these fellows, who hang round them like blue-bottles round sugarcasks. Driving a perambulator is dull work, and a pretty woman who sees her young mistress flirting gaily in the Row is easily enough impelled to encourage the advances of the dashing private, or corporal, who is a skilled adept in such affairs. There is nothing indeed those bold warriors will not do in laying siege to the nursery-maid., They will wheel the perambulator, or hoist up the contents of it above their lofty heads until the squeal of mere pettishness is exchanged for a crow of pleasure. They recite songs from comic books, they offer themselves as escorts to music-halls, and as standing cavaliers on the Sunday out. The end is an old story. Sometimes a coroner has to deal with it, sometimes a judge and a jury take it up after the coroner. It may, indeed, conclude differently. The girl may get married to her admirer, and become the halfstarved laundress to the regiment, put into quarters where the conditions of living are not even decent.--Times.

LADIES' DRESS DESCRIBED BY A LADY. - Miss Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, authoress of "Gates Ajar," wrote in the "New York Independent:" "For myself I confess that I never feel thoroughly ashamed of being a woman, except in glancing over a large promiscuous assembly, and contrasting the simplicity, solidity, elegance, and good sense of a man's apparel with the affectation, the flimsiness, the tawdriness, the ugliness, and the imbecility of a woman's. For her mental and moral deficiencies my heart is filled with a great compassion and prompt excuse. Over her physical inferiority I mourn not as one without hope. When I consider the pass to which she has brought the one sole science of which she is supposed to be yet mistress, my heart misgives me down to the roots of every hope I cherish for her."

PRAYER.-If there be any duty which our Lord Jesus Christ seems to have considered as more indispensably necessary towards the formation of a true Christian it is that of prayer. He has taken every opportunity of impressing on our minds the absolute need in which we stand of the divine assistance, both to persist in the paths of righteousness, and to fly from the allurements of a fascinating but dangerous life; and he has directed us to the only means of obtaining that assistance, in constant and habitual appeals to the throne of grace. Prayer is certainly the foundation of a religious life; for a man can neither arrive at true piety, nor persevere in its ways when attained, unless with sincere and continued fervency, and with the most unaffected anxiety, he implores Almighty God to grant him his perpetual grace, to guard and restrain him from all those derelictions of heart to which by nature we are too prone. I should think it an insult to the understanding of a Christian to dwell on the necessity of prayer.—Henry Kirke White.

AIR-BELLS IN FRANCE.--The French have a system of bells A series of small leaden lately patented, which work by air. tubes proceed from the kitchen to each room, one to the sitting-room, one to the drawing-room, and one to each bedroom. Attached to these tubes in each room are a few feet of indiarubber tubing, suited in colour to the paper of the room. To the end of the tube a syringe is fixed air-tight, and this hangs similar to an ordinary bell-rope. In the kitchen is a case containing the bell which serves for all the rooms, the distinction being effected by tickets with the names of their respective rooms printed on them, held down by springs. They work in this manner: The indiarubber syringe is pressed, and the air by this means is forced through the tube into a corresponding indiarubber syringe or ball in the case in the kitchen. This of course expands, and forces up a small rod which moves a cogwheel and rings the bell, and at the same time sets free the spring which retains the ticket of the room in which the bell is rung; this starts up into a square place in the glass door and at once indicates in a simple manner the room. These ingenious bells act as effectively as electric bells, which they resemble exceedingly in sound, without their trouble and expense, and not getting out of order like our wire bells and cranks.